Several media outlets recently ran a story about a Texas zoo and its exercise program for elephants that they claim is similar to yoga. No! Elephants trained to stand on their heads: by shocking them with a powerful electric stun device
Tess the elephant does a headstand as part of her daily
"exercises" at a Texas zoo.
Photo by Ariana Garcia/CHRON
Several media outlets recently ran a story about a Texas zoo and its
exercise program for elephants that they claim is similar to yoga.
Captive facilities commonly “exercise” elephants because of limited
space and mostly flat surfaces that prevent elephants from building
muscle tone. Some of the exercises at this zoo, however, caught our
attention.
The news stories included photos of elephants engaged in behaviors
that are standard training fare, such as elephants presenting their
feet for inspection from behind a fence. Regularly checking
elephants’ feet – which we do at PAWS – helps to monitor foot health
and treat problems that may arise and should be part of any elephant
husbandry practice.
But other photos portray exercises that are essentially circus
tricks.
A 40-year-old elephant named Tess is shown doing a headstand – a
typical circus trick. In a press release, the zoo explained that
it’s a “behavior she’s known for decades and takes a lot of muscle
control to achieve.” But nowhere do they describe how Tess learned
this trick.
In fact, Tess was once owned by Have Trunk Will Travel, a
California-based outfit that exploited elephants for rides and
circuses. They left California soon after the state passed a law,
co-sponsored by PAWS, to ban the use of elephant bullhooks. The
bullhook is a metal rod resembling a fireplace poker used to control
elephants through fear and pain.
Video footage of Have Trunk Will Travel training sessions,
released by Animal Defenders International in 2013, revealed exactly
how an elephant is trained to stand on her head: by shocking her
with a powerful electric stun device (see video at 4:35).
Have Trunk Will Travel also used the bullhook to force elephants to
sit upright (see video at 6:07) – another behavior displayed by Tess
at the zoo.
As the zoo uses protect contact management – and the Association of
Zoos and Aquariums now generally prohibits bullhook use – we are not
suggesting that they employ similar training practices.
But we are questioning why the zoo would encourage Tess to perform
tricks that have no application to elephant care – and that she
would associate with pain and abuse. If Tess is volunteering these
behaviors, that raises concerning questions about how her early
training has affected her mental state and why she would continue to
perform these tricks. Or is this display purely for the public’s
amusement?
Fitness is essential for elephant health and welfare, but leading
the public to believe that certain behaviors – like circus tricks –
are normal, desirable, and even entertaining is just wrong. Just as
wrong as having Tess perform tricks she learned through the worst
kind of abuse.